Stumbling Through Time
by redstarsarc
Summary: Bak probably should have tried harder to keep Komui away from the time machine. Oh well. Sort of semi-companion to Stranded;Collision. Rated T for language.


**Just some random time travel shenanigans I wrote to boost my word count for the month. Tie-in to Stranded;Collision. Takes place during chapter 9 and shortly after K season one...or something.**

* * *

Stumbling Through Time

Komui poked his head through the portal and saw for himself that Japan really was as desolate as everybody had been saying. He said as much.

"Told you," Bak Chan said.

Scientists from the European and Asian branches worked together to study the Rosen Gate, having captured it right out from under the noses of the enemy. Sure, when they'd found it, it had been very suspiciously surrounded by the dust and pentacle star poison of dead akuma, but Komui still saw it as a victory.

It was too heavy to move without proper equipment and so the scientists had set up monitors and various nameless devices around the Gate.

"Well, since you've arrived here and in one piece, I'd say it works," Bak said. He reached for a device that Johnny had just set on a table, something that was big and bulky and black.

"Is that what controls it?" Komui said.

"Yes. These two dials here allow you to adjust latitude and longitude. These four allow you to adjust the year, month, day, and hour relative to your own position in time, meaning that just nudging this dial here to the five," – he tweaked one of the dials – "indicates a jump of five years into the future, not the year five. And if you want to go to the past, turn it the other way until it's at negative five."

"Ooooh, do we get to test that out, then?"

"Well. Such an experiment is very dangerous, but someone will indeed have to test it out at some point. Someone very brave. I propose –"

"I'll do it!" Komui said without hesitation.

Bak scowled.

"Let's see. This dial for year. Hmm. One hundred and seventeen. Month….umm. This one is fine."

"Komui, what are you doing?"

"Aha. That looks right." Komui beamed. "I'm going to go see Lenalee!"

Bak pretended not to be nearly as interested as he really was. "Don't you think maybe she's a little busy?"

"Not so busy that she can't accept a visit from her dear brother," Komui shot back.

Bak sighed. The Black Order headquarters was in shambles, Central was all over them about the Noah, and all of Komui's best exorcists were off in the future doing who knew what, yet he still found the time to be cheery and go after a sister who, frankly, was probably tired of seeing his face.

"Does this turn it on?"

"Well yes, but –"

Komui turned it on.

"Seriously, though, don't you think –?"

"All for the sake of science." Komui clutched the remote eagerly in his hands. "Don't worry. I'll bring you back a souvenir."

"This is not a vacation," Bak said but his words were lost on Komui who, with a gleeful look on his face, promptly vanished into the Rosen Gate and it only occurred to Bak afterward that he shouldn't have let him wander off with the remote.

"Why did I have to invite him?" Bak said.

Over by the now empty table, Johnny shrugged.

* * *

Komui had only two seconds to admire the looming, shiny buildings and shiny billboards and shiny roads and people meandering by staring into their tiny, shiny screens, when something very red and very angry crashed into him.

"Ow!" Komui said.

"Shit!" said the other person.

The world spun slightly and Komui had to put a hand to his head to steady it and then he saw someone else in a similar state. A punk kid, by the looks of it, with a hat pulled down over red hair, a pair of headphones around his neck. "Watch where you're going, old man!"

"Old man?" Komui said and then stood and his gangly frame towered over the boy, yet that didn't seem to intimidate him in the slightest. "You were the one who ran into me."

"Tch. Didn't anyone teach you not to step out into oncoming traffic?" His voice suggested that he didn't really care whether or not if someone had, only that it had affected his own reckless commute. It occurred to Komui that it really might have been his fault after all, seeing as how he _had_ appeared from nowhere.

The kid stomped on his skateboard to keep it from rolling away and said, "What's that?"

"Oh?" Komui realized the remote was still sitting on the ground after he'd dropped it and he went to pick it up but not fast enough. The kid rolled neatly by and snatched it up. "Hey!"

"What is this piece of junk?" He squinted at tiny words that were printed on the bottom. "'Property of Bak,'" he read. "That you? What kinda name is that?"

"No!" Komui said and tried to grab the remote back but the kid jerked back and rolled several feet away. "My name is Komui Lee and there must be a mistake. Bak can't go and claim everything as his."

"Hmph." The kid examined the dials.

"And you are?"

"Yata." He turned one.

"Don't touch that!"

"Why? Will something explode?"

"Yes. Now give it back. I'm conducting a very important scientific experiment."

"Whatever. Still just looks like a piece of junk." He finally relinquished the device and Komui took it gratefully, though not without the thought that it was now covered in delinquent fingerprints.

Satisfied that everything was in order, Komui cleared his throat and said, "As part of said experiment, I am conducting a survey. Now tell me. What year is this?"

"Eh?" Yata looked at him as if he expected Komui to sprout another head. "What kinda stupid question is that?"

"The scientific kind."

"2012."

"Great! Question number two. Do you or do you not know the whereabouts of an innocent young girl named Lenalee?"

"I thought this was a scientific experiment."

"It is. Just answer the question."

"Never heard of her."

"Really? She should be with a white-haired kid, a grumpy swordsman, and a vampire."

Yata scowled at the mention of a 'white-haired kid' but said, "Nope."

"Oh, and some other people who all wear blue."

Yata's scowl grew deeper. "You mean those Scepter 4 bastards?"

"Yep, that's them."

Yata snorted. "If I never have to see any of them ever again, it'll be too soon."

"Huh." Komui suspected he was missing something very important but wasn't sure whether it would be considered too rude to ask. He looked down at the remote in his hands and thought. He'd only put in the year he knew Lenalee was heading for because he didn't know the month or day and had merely guessed. It occurred to him he'd arrived in the wrong time.

"It occurs to me I've arrived in the wrong time," Komui said.

"Eh?" Yata said. He eyed the device in Komui's hands and the suspicious look only got more suspicious. "You tellin' me this thing travels in time?"

"Um…"

"How's it work?"

"Weeeelll…"

"Hey! There he is!" a voice shouted and Komui and Yata both looked and they both saw a gang of thugs, two of them with skateboards, one with a crowbar. "We're going to pound you to a pulp, you cheater!"

"Urgh," Yata said. "I didn't cheat, you losers!" he shouted back but it had no affect on them. Instead, he swiped at Komui's remote and even though Komui saw it coming, he could only stare in confusion and indignation as the remote was once again taken away from him. "How do you turn this thing on?" Komui didn't need to answer because Yata found out anyway and all he could do was grab onto the remote before it and Yata could disappear and strand him.

They stumbled and almost fell and the most immediate effect of the time travel was that no thugs were racing after them anymore. The next thing they noticed was the array of low, tile-roofed buildings lining the road and the peculiar aroma of horse manure in the air.

Komui swiped the remote back.

"Hey! Where have you taken us?" Yata demanded to know, pointing an accusatory finger at Komui.

" _I_ haven't taken us anywhere." Komui examined the remote and saw that Yata had carelessly twisted the dial to over a hundred and fifty years in the past. The difference between its position now and the one Komui had set it to was no more than a tiny sliver.

"Hmph. Well take us back then."

"I wouldn't need to if you hadn't done anything. Anyway, this is the perfect opportunity. Just look at this place! This must have been what Japan was like before the akuma took over. Now, I just need to confirm this thing's accuracy." Ignoring Yata's protests, he found a young man walking down the dirt road, thick red hair pulled back into a queue.

"Excuse me, sir, what year is it?"

"I don't think that's the kind of guy you ask," Yata said from behind him.

The man leveled a cool gaze on Komui, revealing a crisscross of scars on one side of his face. " _Wakarimasen,_ " he said.

"Umm…"

"Tch. Move aside, old man," Yata said and turning to the red-haired man, said something in Japanese. After a brief exchange, he said, "I think that's just before the start of the Restoration," uncertainly.

"Interesting," Komui said. This Rosen Gate sure had plenty of potential. The possibilities were practically endless. Or at least stretched as far as the dial would turn which was pretty substantial. Komui was surprised anyone was able to write the numbers around the rim so tiny. "Well, time to go back."

Turning the dial, he made a guess on the month, and they vanished again, leaving a perplexed swordsman staring at the place where they had been.

* * *

"You moron. Does this look like Shizume City to you?"

Komui was hurt. Though to be fair, Yata did have a point.

"I think I may have taken us too far," he admitted.

The place they now found themselves was very shiny, which itself wasn't too different from Komui's first impression of Shizume. It was the only similarity, however. Aside from a few wide, aesthetically pleasing buildings, all graceful curves and columns, they were in a wide open area where white walkways crisscrossed over green lawn and above them pale shapes moved against the blue of the sky.

It turned out the remote was more difficult to handle than Komui had anticipated. He squinted down at the dial and realized that he had turned it ahead three hundred years. Oops. He gingerly tried turning the dial back but even the slightest twitch sent it back hundreds of years.

"When I get back, I should get them to make this thing bigger," Komui said.

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Yata said. "Just get me back to my time, already."

Komui shot him an affronted look. "Okay, I think I've got it."

He didn't.

"That thing's a piece of crap," Yata announced.

"Now now, no name calling," Komui said, kicking aside a piece of rubble in the deserted road. "This is harder than it looks."

Yata snorted. "How hard can it be to turn a stupid dial. Give me that."

"No!" It was really starting to irritate Komui having technology stolen away from him.

"See. Turn."

"Wait, you have to be gentle with it!"

Yata grabbed the sleeve of Komui's jacket and pressed the button though Komui knew the boy was likely to get them all even more lost than before.

* * *

Bak sat on the ground in front of the Rosen Gate and scowled. He absentmindedly ate rice cakes out of a bag. Every time the Gate activated, his scowl grew deeper. What the hell was Komui up to? With each activation, the blue energy inside the portal would appear and swirl and crackle and then abruptly die out only to reappear again moments later. Really this was too much.

Bak hurled a cake through the gate and wasn't even satisfied when it vanished.

* * *

"When we get on solid ground, I'm kicking your ass," Yata said.

Komui spit out a mouthful of water, ignoring the rice cake that had appeared and was now bobbing around on the surface. He held the remote in front of him and then looked at Yata, paddling water and the look Yata sent him was murderous.

"If you got us stuck here…" he warned.

"No, no, Bak's smart enough to prepare for situations like this," Komui said. "I think." Either way, he held his breath when he fiddled with the dial and when he pressed the button to activate it.

The remote sparked and something inside of it hummed and sputtered.

Yata prepared to drown Komui.

Then they vanished.

* * *

Komui's natural clumsiness saved him from a punch to the face.

"What the hell!" Yata said though Komui thought that was supposed to be his line.

"We're back!" Komui exclaimed, overly cheerful. But just in case, he used the remote to shield his face.

"Great. Now I get to punch your lights out at leisure." He balled his hand into a fist and Komui realized the boy was serious and he wondered if maybe this whole adventure wasn't quite so exciting as he thought it should be.

Yata's punch never landed though. Instead, all of the tension drained out of his shoulders and he was staring at something just beyond Komui and only when Komui was sure he wouldn't catch him by surprise did he turn to look too.

He wasn't sure what he was looking for at first. It was just people going about their lives, chatting and walking and fiddling with their phones and staring down at their feet and running and laughing and joking with their companions. One individual seemed to stick out though. A young man with straight blond hair who was talking on the phone while waiting to cross the street.

"We're not back," Yata said and his voice had become so different that Komui had to turn back to make sure it was still the same person.

"Well, I might be a year or so off," Komui admitted. He really did need to talk to Bak about making bigger controls.

Yata's gaze was fixed on the person, his balled fists at his side. "You stay put," he said and then, having left his skateboard behind at the start of their little adventure, ran off. Komui stared at his retreating back. He looked down at the remote. But he could just imagine Bak's reaction and that of their entire joint science team if they heard he'd left someone in a time other than their own.

He sighed. This science stuff sure was tricky.

* * *

Yata kept his gaze riveted on Totsuka as if afraid that a single blink and he'd disappear. His shoes pounded the pavement. Everything suddenly felt unreal, like it was a dream and yet he could feel the warm air drying his soaked clothing and the people he shoved through who protested at his passing. Totsuka didn't disappear and Yata caught up with him just as he had crossed the street.

"I won't forget. Mm-hmm. 'Kay." Totsuka hung up and stared at Yata. "Decided to go for a swim?" he said.

In answer, Yata punched him in the arm.

"Ow. What was that for?"

Yata wanted badly to tell him exactly what it was for, but there was no way to do so and so he clenched his fists even tighter. All he could see was Totsuka on the floor, bleeding, his eyes glazed over even while Yata panicked and begged and Kusanagi made the call to Mikoto.

"You should really get a new hobby," he said finally.

"Hmm? You mean instead of film?" But when Yata didn't do or say anything to that, Totsuka frowned, sensing that something was seriously wrong. "Yata, what is it? Has something happened?"

How was he supposed to say anything? "Don't go to the Hirasaka Building," Yata said finally. "It's dangerous."

"That's pretty unlike you," Totsuka said, still frowning. "I wasn't really planning on it, though. Why?"

"Just don't. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Yata…" Totsuka rubbed the back of his head. "Are you sure something hasn't happened? I could swear you're a different person right now."

"Just don't," Yata reiterated because it was all he could really say. How could he go on about the Colorless King and about Shiro and about the gunshot that would take Totsuka's life? He just hoped the concern in his voice got through to Totsuka and warded him away.

He just hoped it would be enough.

* * *

Komui was sitting on a bench, examining the remote and thinking idle thoughts when Yata returned.

"Take me home," was all he said. He didn't curse or threaten and Komui wasn't sure how to deal with that. As it was, he'd had some time while Yata was away to fiddle with the remote and he was sure that he had it right this time.

When the two of them vanished, they reappeared in a city identical to the one they had just left except with a different configuration of pedestrians and an abandoned skateboard which Yata flipped over onto its wheels.

"Well…it was nice to meet you," Komui said though he wasn't quite sure it was true.

"Whatever," Yata said and kicked off and wheeled away, gaining speed until he turned a corner and was gone.

Komui stood in silence for a minute before adjusting the dial and vanishing himself. Like any skill, it seemed he would get the hang of it better the longer he worked on it. Perhaps it helped to spend time coaxing the remote into the right coordinates rather than giving it a haphazard spin and seeing where that lead him, though he had to admit it was quite fun that way.

The other way, though, the one in which he concentrated on getting it just right, was the most efficient for getting to where he needed to go. For the third time, he found himself reappearing in the same location but at a different time. From there, it was rather easy to find Scepter 4 headquarters, a spacious mansion behind tall iron gates.

"She's not here," said the grumpy young man on the other side of the gates. "She went back home."

"O-oh." Komui's shoulders slumped. He continued to look through the gates, trying to see past the young man who even now was fiddling with a PDA, as if he might spot her in the yard.

"Did she say specifically if she was going back to England?" Komui said.

The man clicked his tongue. "How should I know?"

"Oh. Well. Thanks anyway." The man didn't respond and so Komui turned away from the gates. But whatever disappointment he'd felt was rapidly dissolving at the thought that she'd gone back home. He hadn't seen her in so long and he couldn't wait to get back now and Bak's little science experiment could wait.

Adjusting the remote – taking care to set it to the precise coordinates – he vanished, though the man at the gates didn't even look up at this and so was not surprised by it.

Bak's face was not a very pleasant one when Komui returned, the remote in his hand sputtering and crackling and making an uneasy sound that might have been a death rattle.

"Well?" Bak said.

"Lenalee's back," Komui said and spun around to face the Rosen Gate which had quieted rather abruptly after he'd emerged through it.

"Just where exactly have you been?" Bak said, taking in his wet and sodden appearance.

"Here and there," Komui said while trying to remember the latitude and longitude for England.

"That was very reckless."

Komui thought he had everything adjusted correctly when he switched on the Rosen Gate. The portal hummed and crackled and then grew quiet.

"Um…" Komui looked at the controls and then shook the whole thing and tried again, but nothing happened. "Maybe it's overheated."

" _Komui_." Bak sighed. "Please don't tell me you just broke it."

"I'm sure I haven't. I mean, don't they have one in the future that works?"

"Yes. After a hundred years in which it did absolutely nothing."

"You're not saying…"

"I'm saying that maybe there was a reason this thing was buried for a hundred years instead of being used during that time and somehow Scepter 4 got it working again with who knows what kind of advanced technology."

" _No._ "

Bak grabbed the remote away from Komui. "What I'm saying is that you are hereby banished from this project. You broke it."

Komui didn't think that was quite fair. All the same, at least Lenalee was back so it wasn't all bad. Though he did wonder at the implications of having a broken time portal and he wondered why Bak was absently fiddling with the remote and casting the Rosen Gate glances and sighing.

It was only later that Komui realized that this meant he would have to go the long way around to get back to Lenalee. The thought was not an appealing one. It meant several more months away from Lenalee and most of that time spent below deck with his eyes closed and praying that he wasn't going to die.

He and the ocean did not get along _at all_.


End file.
